Redwood City Responds to Obama’s State of the Union

Though it is one of the President’s most important speeches given during the year, only a handful of Redwood City residents tuned in Tuesday night. The ones who did said they wanted more details, but had high praises for the President.

“He sent a very strong call for us to focus on our future,” said 21st District Assemblymember Rich Gordon. “He understood that we are sitting within an emerging global economy.”

There were mixed reactions from perhaps the most memorable part of this State of the Union address: the move to sit by district rather than along party lines in a sign of unity.

“I don’t know if that was just for show or if it actually aided the situation,” resident Richard Oliverio said. “But what they’ve got to do is sit down and eliminate this hostility. In all my years, I’ve never seen such hostility.”

“This was a first step towards building relationships,” Gordon said. “It’s far more difficult to demonize people when you know them. Knowing someone as a human being makes it far easier to disagree without being disagreeable.”

The conciliatory tone even extended to amending existing legislation.

“I liked that he was wiling to admit that there might be changes to the healthcare bill,” resident Carol Snyder said. “Even though it’s been passed, there are some things that need to be changed to it.”

Resident Rob McHugh said he thought it made the address more “harmonious” and cut down on the number of standing ovations.

“It was very heartfelt and motivational,” McHugh added. “The call to action had a very positive tone.”

Another memorable line was an analogy Obama used to explain his plan to increase efficiency by merging different federal departments.

“Using the smoked salmon analogy was great,” Redwood City Woodside Democrats Club President Chris Balme said. “The use of humor was very clever.”

But aside from the humor, Balme said the undertones were "politically clever."

“He found areas within the Republicans’ proposal that overlapped with the Democrats plan and really seized onto those," Balme added.

But the lack of details, intentional or not, seemed to leave viewers wanting more.

“One thing I wanted more specifics on was how he plans to close the $14 trillion debt,” Richard Oliverio said. “But his plan to increase jobs was spelled out nicely.”

“He was also nice and clear about an absolute redline on any bills that had earmarks hidden in them,” Balme said. “This might get some blowback from Democrats, but he was very committed to that.”

And it wouldn’t have been a complete State of the Union without an address of the dire jobs situation.

“We’ve got to get Americans back to work,” Gordon said. “I really appreciated his emphasis on understanding the pain that so many unemployed people are feeling.”